"New" 96/11's

[Calfed]

Glommed these two 96/11's today on an on-line auction.







Description stated:
Schmidt-Rubin Model 1896/11 Straight-Pull Rifle, #313237, 7.5x55mm Swiss, 30.7'' barrel, tangent leaf sight graduated to 2000 meters, blue finish, European walnut stocks, with sling. Import marked. Condition is very good retaining approx. 94% original factory blue. Stock with thinning to finish and light to just moderate dings, scuffs and scratches. Action is crisp, bore is very good and should clean to better.

---------- Post added at 09:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 PM ----------

The second one :







Description advised:
Schmidt-Rubin Model 1896/11 Straight-Pull Rifle, #229113, 7.5x55mm Swiss, 30.7'' barrel, tangent leaf sight graduated to 2000 meters, blue finish, European walnut stocks, with sling. Import marked. Condition is very good retaining approx. 95% original factory blue. Stock with thinning to finish and light to just moderate dings, scuffs and scratches. Action is crisp, bore is bright.

Information

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Action is crisp, bore is very good and should clean to better.

What always irritates me about such texts as " Should clean to better" is: why didn't the seller clean it himself? I have a nasty suspicious mind about auction texts, and a "should" means that the seller is providing hope, not facts. If I sell a rifle, you may be sure that the bore is as clean as anyone is ever going to get it without recutting the rifling, I would not have kept it in a dirty condition, neither did the Swiss.

Likewise the favorite auctioneer's description "dark bore". If a bore is dark, it is either because the seller is bone idle (bad indication for the general condition of the rifle) and the bore is filthy, or it is rusted (even worse). Why are sellers so lazy - or devious?

Please forgive me my little rant. I think you have got two good rifles, and the bores really will clean up "to better". The typical Schmidt Rubin has an excellent bore, and will outshoot most other milsurps with open sights.

[Calfed]

This was one of those 500 gun auctions and I'm assuming that the auction company really didn't care to clean the weapons. My guess..the late owner didn't clean it after he last fired it and it will clean up fine.

I've always had good luck with this auction house and will post some bore pics after I've cleaned it up.

I bought 10 Swiss rifles from this auction house last year...combination of K31, K11. 1911 and 96/11's. All were "as described" or better.

I'll post bore pics after they arrive.

[Aragorn243]

You must be a serious Swiss collector. I'm happy with one of each type. They have become my favorites and I can see how the potential to want more will be hard for me to withstand. I think I'll try to get the earlier models first. I have a 1911, K11 and K31.

[Calfed]

No question...I love Swiss rifles.

Here are the ones I got from this auction last year...

[Calfed]

The 96/11's came last week and I got a chance to look them over before they went into my FFl's safe for the 10 day "cooling off" period.

I made a few observations...

triggers on both are simply amazing...as are all my Swiss rifles.

The bore of #229113 is one of the best I've seen. I also noticed something that was clearly visible in the auctions pics...the serial number on the barrel appears to be handstamped and there is no M+ final acceptance stamp on the barrel shank. This appears to indicate a barrel replacement sometime after the 96/11 conversion. That may account for the fine bore.



The bore of #323237 had a light coat of grease. This made it appear to be less then perfect. A couple of passes with the bore snake revealed to true excellence of the bore.

Range report when I can get them to the range

[Calfed]

What always irritates me about such texts as " Should clean to better" is: why didn't the seller clean it himself? I have a nasty suspicious mind about auction texts, and a "should" means that the seller is providing hope, not facts. If I sell a rifle, you may be sure that the bore is as clean as anyone is ever going to get it without recutting the rifling, I would not have kept it in a dirty condition, neither did the Swiss.

Likewise the favorite auctioneer's description "dark bore". If a bore is dark, it is either because the seller is bone idle (bad indication for the general condition of the rifle) and the bore is filthy, or it is rusted (even worse). Why are sellers so lazy - or devious?

Please forgive me my little rant. I think you have got two good rifles, and the bores really will clean up "to better". The typical Schmidt Rubin has an excellent bore, and will outshoot most other milsurps with open sights.

Turned out to be grease in the barrel. The Swiss owner probably left it as he was trained...with a light coat of grease and the auction house didn't feel like cleaning it out. Both bores were excellent.

I was able to pick up my new Swiss rifles this morning and got a couple of close ups of the metal and wood. One of them appears to have had a barrel replacement at one time. That one also has an odd, shield-shaped stamping on the tang. Bores on all of them are superb...of course.

Here is a better shot of the serial number on the barrel:


Appears to be a handstamping.

Here is a stamping on the tang:


It appears to be an "H" or something similar

There is a large circle "B" on the butt of the stock


Bore is excellent!

[Calfed]

I got a quick trip to the Lincoln range in yesterday and shot the newest Swiss and Swede rifles.

96/11 #229113 ...the one with the replacement barrel is a smoking hot shooter.

After verifying that the front sight was set correctly for windage @ 50 yards, I tried a few 5 shot groups @ 100 yards.

The first one with GP11...


It looked pretty good, so I tried a second GP11 group...


I really liked these groups, so I tried a group with my handload...43.9 grains of IMR4064 and a 168 gr AMAX...


I think this is my new favorite Swiss rifle.

---------- Post added at 08:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:39 PM ----------

96/11 #313237 was a bit of a disappointment. The best GP11 group that I could muster @ 100 yards was this one...



I didn't have anymore of my reloads, so I wasn't able to try them in this one. A little odd, because this bore looks to be at least as good as the bore in the other 96/11. I guess it could be an issue unrelated to the bore. I may take it apart and make sure there isn't something in the barrel channel, etc that is interfering with the accuracy.